I shouldn’t have said that people don’t care about car safety. People do care (because if you ask them that’s what they’d answer) but their actions are inconsistent with that belief. So it’s a form of status quo bias. The current situation is seen as perfectly acceptable and slightly safer cars are seen as slightly better and slightly less safe cars are seen as slightly worse.
Perhaps things like playing an ipod in the car, driving tired etc. are due to the bandwagon effect? I think that most people do initially desire vehicle safety, but as you drive more and more, especially when you are driving with other people in the car, you will tend to pick up unsafe driving habits because other people are encouraging this (they do it as well, and nothing bad has happened to them, yet).
Looking at your example of the introduction of seat belts, I’m inclined to think that these people vastly overestimated the added safety of the seat belts because they already considered the car relatively safe after having driven without them for a long enough time. Thus the seat belt meant, to them, that they could take bigger risks and be more aggressive in order to get to their destination faster.
Perhaps things like playing an ipod in the car, driving tired etc. are due to the bandwagon effect? I think that most people do initially desire vehicle safety, but as you drive more and more, especially when you are driving with other people in the car, you will tend to pick up unsafe driving habits because other people are encouraging this (they do it as well, and nothing bad has happened to them, yet).
Looking at your example of the introduction of seat belts, I’m inclined to think that these people vastly overestimated the added safety of the seat belts because they already considered the car relatively safe after having driven without them for a long enough time. Thus the seat belt meant, to them, that they could take bigger risks and be more aggressive in order to get to their destination faster.